Incanter

Not to be confused with Incanters.

Definition and origins

According to The Dictionary (4th ed., A.R. 3000), an Incanter is a legendary figure associated in the Sæcular mind with the mathic world, said to be able to alter physical reality by incanting certain coded words or phrases. The idea is traced to work conducted in the maths prior to the Third Sack, then amplified outside the walls.

Popular depictions and iconography

In popular entertainments, fictionalized Incanters—supposedly linked to Halikaarnian traditions—are shown dueling their mortal foes, the Rhetors, in spectacular style. An influential suvin among historical scholars holds that many Sæculars' inability to distinguish such entertainments from reality was largely responsible for the Third Sack. These portrayals function as part of broader Iconographies that outsiders use to simplify the mathic world. For background on Halikaarn’s association with semantics, see Saunt Halikaarn.

Usage in mathic and Sæcular speech

Within the maths, "Incanter" often serves as shorthand for a claim of extreme, implausible capability—a rhetorical benchmark rather than a defined order.

• In a discussion about possible time slippage between causal domains, Fraa Orolo was told that such a scenario would grant "Incanter-like" powers to a hypothetical group, prompting the later formulation of Causal Domain Shear. The comparison also arose alongside mention of the Ten-Thousand-Year Math, underscoring that the term is invoked to flag extraordinary assertions rather than to identify a known community.
• In current discourse with off‑worlders, shipboard authorities aligned with the Pedestal have been heard using the plural label—“the Incanters”—as an outsider synonym for the Thousanders. The remark followed a wide dispersal of avout into the Antiswarm and reflects apprehension about Millenarian maths rather than acknowledgment of any formal order.
• During diplomacy aboard the Daban Urnud, a senior avout described ongoing cooperation between tendencies known “to the vulgar” as Rhetors and Incanters, explicitly mapping the pairing to Procians and Halikaarnians. He credited results that some present described as startling to this collaboration, reinforcing that these labels are story shorthands attached to real schools rather than names of a formal order.

Status

No rites, officers, or confirmed organization are described for Incanters in material available so far. The term denotes a legend or trope, not a recognized order, and is used carefully to avoid reinforcing misleading expectations outside the walls.